New drops from the communities you're subscribed to. I have a Manley Chinook phono stage and think it's a really nice piece, but there's nothing flashy about it and it was 'affordable' for me.DarkVoice 336SE OTL Headphone Amp, Ultimate Ears UE900s IEM, Topping D10 DAC and more. It's unique and would be something to show off if you're into that sort of thing. I think much of what you're paying for is the look of it, which of course is hard to put a value on. I don't think something like the Manley headphone amp is 'worth it' for any practical reason. In most cases, there were features those pieces had that were also important in my purchasing decision when I decided to upgrade. I've moved on to some more expensive gear and it does sound better, but incrementally. I think it sounded as good or better than the Oppo HA-1 headphone amp I had. If I would have had to sell all my other amps for some reason and only keep that one, it would have been only a minor 'downgrade', more a loss of features than anything else. I'm sure the person I sold it to is enjoying it as much as I did. It was class A and had a lot of power, two inputs, and sounded really good. I recently sold my Musical Fidelity M1 HPAP headphone amp, which originally sold for $799. Headphones amps (and a lot of the other gear we use to enjoy our hobby) don't have to cost a lot to be good. I have no doubt that I would enjoy listening to those amps. You may have me confused with someone else. I have some nice stuff, but it's mostly 'mid-fi' and most of it I have purchased second hand.įirst off, I'm not really a DIY person, I like to purchase fully realized products. It sounds phenomenal and I would put it up against anything 2 maybe even 3 times the price. Beautiful fit and finish The only plastic on the entire case is the fuse holder and IEC receptacle. Same heavy gauge steel, same beefy power transformer. In fact the chassis is like a 2/3 scale Mid Mono. The Quicksilver on the other hand is every bit of what I would expect in a top shelf amp. So I will just say the Neve is great for the money, maybe not TOTL, but it will crush a number of more expensive amps. They are targeting the home demographic now with case work. That puts it $200 more than the Quicksilver which is clearly the better amp so they really didn't do their customers any favors. the amp is exactly the same inside, identical.

Neve must be having some success in the home arena or they wouldn't have re-cased the RNHP to look like a slick piece of home gear. I think in every category you reach the point of diminishing returns, where is that with phones? I don't know. Many which are flavor of the week.Īre amps like the Manley and conrad -johnson worth their asking prices of $4500 and $7500 respectively? I don't know and I'll probably never get to find out. Lots of cheaply built cans and amps from China.

That's part of the problem with the headphone category. You have a unique perspective, you are a DIY guy who can build amps, but you also have some fine toys that are at the top of their class, so you probably see a lot of overpriced crap that just isn't worth the money. Both made in USA by companies with serious audio roots. Big Greg, no offense taken ! I assure you if you spent some time with either amp you would agree that they are superb performers.

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